Prognosticator sues, says Google, bloggers misused name

Wednesday

Nov 14, 2012 at 2:00 AM

KINGSTON — Gerald Celente, the Kingston-based, internationally recognized forecaster of social, political and economic trends, is suing Google and several bloggers he claims the Internet giant has allowed to wrongly use his name and trademarks to generate revenue for themselves.

BY MICHAEL RANDALL

KINGSTON — Gerald Celente, the Kingston-based, internationally recognized forecaster of social, political and economic trends, is suing Google and several bloggers he claims the Internet giant has allowed to wrongly use his name and trademarks to generate revenue for themselves.

The lawsuit was filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

A court hearing is scheduled for Monday to consider whether to issue a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the bloggers.

Celente says the bloggers, by using his name in their domain names, and his name, image and trademarks on their blogs, imply they are authorized by him.

While the blogs discuss socioeconomic and political trends, they also contain inaccurate and offensive statements, according to court papers. Celente, interviewed Tuesday at his Kingston office, said the bogus blogs began popping up about a year and a half ago and are hurting both his reputation and his business.

Court papers cite one post that uses a vulgarity, while others contain anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic and anti-Vatican statements. It's not a matter of free speech, Celente said.

"I don't care what people post," said Celente. "Just don't post it under my name."

He's also upset that Google won't do anything about it.

"They refuse to enforce their own impostor rule," he said.

Spokeswoman Niki Fenwick said Google will not be commenting on the case.

Only one blogger — who goes by David Chekroun — is identified by name in the suit; the others are listed only as John Does 1 through 10.

Celente is seeking an immediate discovery proceeding to learn Chekroun's contact information and the identities and contact information of the other bloggers, so they can be served and the suit can proceed. Celente was unable to learn more about them, even with the help of a private investigator. One trail led to a flophouse in Montreal, he said.

Celente's lawyer, Dyan Finguerra-DuCharme, said the main goal of the suit is to stop the bloggers from using her client's name, but he'll also be seeking damages, as yet unspecified.

To give an example of just how entrenched the bloggers are, Celente typed the phrase "Gerald Celente trends blog" into the Google search box, then, pointing to the site that comes up first, asks: "Wouldn't you think that was me?" But it's actually one of the bogus blogs, with the heading, "Forecasts and Prophecies." The latter word is not one found on a genuine Celente site.